Morragh Mine Case Study
Shortly before the Morragh Mine blew up last June, an alarm went off in the surface control room, which warned of high methane levels underground. Twenty miners were killed in the explosion at the financially troubled mine. Since the mine did not know who was on shift at the time of the explosion, many wives of the miners received phone calls that morning asking if their husbands were at home. At the time of the explosion, the mine had been under an order from the provincial labour department to establish a safety plan to prevent coal-dust explosion. The cause of the disaster was later established to have been ignition of coal dust, which was caused by an explosion of accumulated methane.
Even before the two-year-old mine owned by the Calgary-based …show more content…
Subsequent to the investigations, the owner and five managers were charged with forty violations of provincial health and safety laws based on evidence, the bulk of it from internal mine reports, memorandums and statements from employees. Five months prior to the explosion, a shift boss reported that an underground area near the coal face had been fenced off to keep miners out, because a methane level of 2.5 percent was indicated. According to a penciled notation later found on a computer print-out in the control room, the methane level in the mine at the time of the explosion was high enough to require work to stop until the mine was ventilated to a safe level. Methane is considered explosive at levels between 5 and 15 percent but can easily ignite at lower percentages. Government regulations require coal-mining operations to stop when methane reached 1.5 percent. At 2.5 percent the area must be evacuated. The methane level penciled on the computer report was 1.5 percent. Reports written by maintenance staff also indicated several safety problems. One report noted: “Methanometers are not working or are missing from equipment in some cases.” Another noted: “Gas detector warning light is malfunctioning. Cannot complete safety inspection without interrupting mining
Even before the two-year-old mine owned by the Calgary-based …show more content…
Subsequent to the investigations, the owner and five managers were charged with forty violations of provincial health and safety laws based on evidence, the bulk of it from internal mine reports, memorandums and statements from employees. Five months prior to the explosion, a shift boss reported that an underground area near the coal face had been fenced off to keep miners out, because a methane level of 2.5 percent was indicated. According to a penciled notation later found on a computer print-out in the control room, the methane level in the mine at the time of the explosion was high enough to require work to stop until the mine was ventilated to a safe level. Methane is considered explosive at levels between 5 and 15 percent but can easily ignite at lower percentages. Government regulations require coal-mining operations to stop when methane reached 1.5 percent. At 2.5 percent the area must be evacuated. The methane level penciled on the computer report was 1.5 percent. Reports written by maintenance staff also indicated several safety problems. One report noted: “Methanometers are not working or are missing from equipment in some cases.” Another noted: “Gas detector warning light is malfunctioning. Cannot complete safety inspection without interrupting mining